Casio PG-380 Midi Guitar

Several months ago Jason asked me if I could fix a MIDI Guitar. I didn’t have the slightest idea how to fix one, and had only speculative knowledge about how they work, so naturally I said “yeah, sure, piece of cake”. If I’d have known at the time the kind of gear lust this project would create I might have turned him down at the outset.

The Casio PG-380 is a guitar that translates the notes you pick on the strings into MIDI Notes. Think of it like a Keytar, only its ACTUALLY a guitar. You may think that the name brand somehow reduces the quality of this particular instrument, but you’d be mistaken; this baby is top of the line. It can translate amplitude, hammer-ons, and string bends with very little latency. I’d soon find out how hard to find, and how expensive, buying one of these would be.

The problem sounded simple: only the bottom two strings of the guitar were producing notes. At first I figured this must be a calibration issue or something, so I tweaked some of the pots on the board, messed with action height, etc in an effort to get the MIDI pick up to hear and translate the notes. This effort proved fruitless so I turned to the web.

How do you translate audio into midi? I had a vague idea how you could do this with envelope followers and some basic filter networks, but I wanted to understand how this thing actually worked before I could say with any certainty what was wrong with it. I looked around for a long time on the web and turned up nothing related to the technical aspects of converting the output of a guitar pickup to MIDI. In the end I relied on the premise that there must be a filter network to divide the audio by string, and a logic device to convert that analog value to a digital stream of bytes. Since 2 of the 6 strings were working, I could assume that the logic device was probably ok. I turned my attention to what I assumed was the filter network.

I cracked open the case and had a look around. I followed the traces from the pickup back to the 6 calibration pots to the series of capacitors that make up the filter network. I didn’t see anything visibly wrong so I returned to the internet to see if there were any already reported issues for the PG-380. Sure enough I came across this post, which identified a common problem as deteriorating electrolytic capacitors in the filter network. It turns out that electrolytic capacitors go ‘stale’ if left unpowered for a long stretch of time. So, just replace the caps, right? Almost.

I’m usually pretty reckless (or overconfident), especially with my own gear, but when it’s someone else’s very expensive stuff on the line I tend to be a little more cautious. I prefer to stick with old PCBS, with large thru hole components. Think of your grandpa’s large print books. This was a modern board with tiny surface mount components, something I’ve never dealt with before. I searched around for some techniques I could use to get these little caps off the board and settled on the “hot tweezer” method. This is essentially taking a blow torch to a pair of tweezers until they’re hot enough to melt solder, then gripping the cap and pulling it off the board. This worked for the most part, though there were some persistent ones that I ended up just jamming a soldering iron under an pulling off. That “technique” ended up being a little messy; there is a plastic separator under the caps that melted all over the place. Those tweezers came in handy for scraping that crap off.

As for the replacement caps, I went with the smallest long lead electrolytic capacitors I could find. I had some of these lying around already and ordered the balance from Mouser. Along with some other stuff for future projects (and posts). Replacement was easy. Cut the leads short, flux the pads, tin the soldering iron, and tack one lead in place. After tacking one lead solder the other post, then fully solder the tacked post. Just like thru hole only you’re tacking the caps on top of the board. It looks a little goofy, but not as goofy as playing a keytar…

Capacitors in place I plugged the guitar in and went to work. Whoa. I hadn’t imagined using a guitar to trigger a synthesizer would be so fun.

Here is a drone sound, with a completely unnecessary string bend at the end:

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Here are some chords, which I thought the pg-380 did a pretty decent job of sensing:

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And how about a silly FM bass chord:

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I’m addicted and I have to give this thing back at some point. Looking around on the internet, these puppies go for upwards of $1500. So, if you have a less than perfect PG-380 for sale, perhaps one that needs some new capacitors, I’ll take it off your hands.

Has anyone found a good repair tech who can tackle the cap replacement problem. in need myself and hoping to find someone in Florida but willing to ship guitar out of state if necessary. thanks in advance, Dave

I have the SMT equipment, and the experience to repair the Casio PCB, as long as it is in a condition that is repairable; meaning someone has not attempted to repair it and botched the job.
I have successfully repaired these in the past; however, parts are becoming harder to find, which can impact the end result. (connectors, and other parts, besides the caps).

Hi Grant, I have a rare white Casio PG380 which is only played about ten times. It was my backup and is in excellent condition! For many years my main guitar was a black Casio PG380 which I sold to a friend. It was subsequently destroyed in the “Sandy” Hurricane. Every five to seven years I would have to replace the capacitors. The first time I took the whole guitar to Glen Lyon, PA to get the job done while I waited. After that, I just disconnected the board under the front lower horn of the guitar and sent it in a bubble pack. It was repaired and sent back to me in three days, and this was the only times I used my white guitar. It usually cost $100. This company main busines was repairing Casio cash registers whic also used the same capacitors. I am retired now but I used to use a Korg, Roland U110, Roland 550 etc. All my stuff is now for sale. The Casio comes with a card and a brand new hard case originally intended for bass. The casio will not fit in a regular guitar case. Frank.

Hi Grant, My repair guy has retired and closed down the business. I am retired and out of the music business although I have a few left over items for sale. eg: about four hundred or more top quality popular music sequences in a dedicated small laptop computer with software to separate and change the tracks any way you want. I have a Roland 550 rack top module with all the connections. Comes with a roadie travel case. I also have a Korg M1R for sale. Traderfrank.

Hi Grant, I forgot to say in my last message that I modified my white Casio PG380. I found the original middle and neck pick-ups sounded dull, so I replaced them with the Fender 2000 FLS (The Legendary 1950’s “Strat’ Sound, and the Fender 2002 FLS (The Red Hot Mega Output Sound. In case anyone would want to restore the original pick-ups I still have them storedin the Fender plastic cases. They woul be included in the sale of my guitar along with a locking guitar strap. Frank.

Frank, what did you do to replace the p’ups? I ask b/c the originals are hooked up to connectors on the PCB rather than being soldered to pots like on a regular guitar. I’d like to set mine up as an S/S/S with either Lace Chrome Domes or something fatter-sounding, especially on the Bridge-Middle setting, which I tend to use almost exclusively in my playing.

I have never had to repair my two Casio PG380 guitars except for the capacitor on the small circuit board located on the lower front of the guitar. I used to disconnect this circuit board and send it to a Company in PA. Unfortunately, this Company seems to be out of business because they have not returned any of my phone calls. Frank.

I am going to install one or more Lace Sensor Chrome Dome pickups in my PG-380 to beef up the regular guitar sound, and as I recall, the PG pickups use press-in connectors on the main PC board. My thinking is that I’ll cut the pickup wires going to the board and splice the Lace wires with the remaining wires to the connector. My question is, does anyone know which wire is which on the originals? I’d prefer to get it right the first time so the phase is correct, so I don’t have to take the damn thing apart and put it back together if I get the phase wrong. I’m installing the middle pickup (reverse wound) first, and want to see how the guitar sounds with the Lace middle pickup against the bridge pickup with the coil split. At this point I have only gotten the middle replacement (Chrome Dome) pickup, and if it sounds right for what I want, I may just leave it at that rather than mess with figuring out how to either install a single coil bridge pickup in place of the original HB, or find a (rare) Chrome Dome humbucker and figure out how to wire that in to the PG circuitry and get it to split right. Anyone know which is which on those wires?

Hello all, I had replaced all capacitors (carefully) in my PG-389 with Elna Silmic audiophile types. The guitar worked and played now, but I could not get the calibrate (string level) up to proper value on any string. I was thinking, it might not like the Elna caps (?) So I removed them and replaced them with new tantalum types. Still not calibrating. So maybe I can pick your brains? Is it possible for the strings themselves to lose their magnetic properties? Have you ever heard of the midi pickup getting weak? I have carefully examined the pc boards and under the highest magnification all looks good. I hope you can help me get my old guitar back in action!! Thanks, Pete

I have the same problems as evrnoyee else. My caps look fine, I check the board fro any cracks or breaks bewteen the print, and have found no visible problem with the board. My worse case symptom was a restart that took almost six hours. I went ahead and bought a new TV. Don’t know if I want to spend the money on trying to fix or have someone else fix it. It is a SAMSUNG and my third Samsung (all different model numbers and sizes over a five year period that I have either had problems with lines, clicking, HDMI Ports dropping off. There will not be a fourth. My 1st generation Panasonic 32 LCD, Sony LCD, and Panasonic Plasma still run like champs. I am now test running a new LG to see where it will take me. People, do your self a favor, stay away from the Samsung products.